faithful

True to Kind

“This is a faithful saying … If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself”  2 Timothy 2:11, 13

Paul encourages Timothy and all of us to “be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus” (v 1) through faith in who Jesus is. There will be reward for remaining faithful. Paul gives the examples of a soldier, an athlete and a farmer to show that God is faithful. But even if we are not faithful God remains faithful. Why is this? It is because God and all His creatures are true to kind. God cannot act contrary to who He is and that is a foundation stone of true Christian faith.

The Bible reveals two things that God cannot do: God cannot lie (Titus 1:2; Hebrews 6:18) and God cannot act contrary to His Divine Nature (2 Timothy 2:13).

In an attempt to reduce penalty or even avoid penalty the defence of an accused may call witnesses to demonstrate that the actions of the accused were “out of character”. This is wholly untrue. All of God’s creatures act absolutely according to what they are. We all act exactly according to what we are. The natural person is always in rebellion against God and can do nothing but sin. The problem is not what we do but what we are. What we do is the outworking of what we are. A person may be able to suppress behaviour but they cannot change what they are. “There is none righteous, no not one” (Romans 3:10).

Sinful thoughts, words and deeds are the symptoms of what we are. As in the case of one before a judge we may try to escape penalty by claiming otherwise but God will not be deceived. We are sinners and there is no remedy until we admit that we are sinners by nature. We cannot change what we are. At best we may be able to change some aspects of our behaviour but that will never make us compatible with God.

God is holy; God is undefiled; God is without sin; God is love; God is righteous and just; God cannot deny who He is and if we are to come into His presence and have communion with Him then what we are must be changed. We cannot change what we are. This is why Jesus makes the emphatic statement that “you must be born again” (John 3:3). This is not a command but a statement of fact. To have communion with God we must have the same nature. This is only possible by way of a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 6:15) through which we are made “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4).

When Jesus died on the cross He took our sin nature to death as well as the penalty for sin acts. In His resurrection He opened the door for a new life (Ephesians 2:10). The Gospel of Christ reveals God’s remedy for the “wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23) but also the remedy for what we are. Jesus’ resurrection necessitated His death on the cross; for us to live the resurrection life we must die to self.

God cannot change who and what He is. He is holy and without sin. If anyone is to come into His presence it is they who must be changed. Only Jesus Christ is able to do that for He alone bore our sin and rose again.

The Truth Revealed

“You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe – and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?” James 2:19, 20

God has given us the planetary system for several very useful purposes and one of them is to note the passing of time. Most of us know our age and could readily state it if asked. Some may be inclined to be less than honest in their answer. The passing of years is also helpful to remind us that we are not going to be on this earth forever and we would do well to reflect on the direction our lives are taking and the ultimate destiny at which we will arrive.

James makes it very clear in his letter that what we do is the outworking of what we believe. That being the case, reflection will reveal what we really believe and what we are. It is very easy to say we believe certain things but our actions and attitudes, our likes and dislikes, will reveal the truth of the matter. What we may say may be proven to be a lie by what we do; or it may confirm that belief.

The Bible states in many ways that salvation is through faith in Jesus Christ alone and it also states that such faith will bring about certain attitudes and behaviours in accord with that faith. James throws out the challenge to show faith without works knowing full well that it is impossible (v 18). It isn’t that good attitude, behaviour or works merits salvation, but that genuine salvation will produce good works. The evidence that a dead person has been raised is that they express the attributes of life. Among other things, they will move, speak, eat and sleep so that we can see they are alive. The same is true of one dead in trespasses and sins whom God has made alive to God (Ephesians 2:4-10).

While the passing from one year to another is no different from any other day passing to the next we can use this marker of the orbit of earth around the sun to measure not just the passing of time but also our growth in faith in Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul often spoke in terms of pressing on toward Christ and knowing Him more intimately (Philippians 3:10). When taking time for reflection we will come to a more reliable evaluation provided we do not look only into our intellectual belief but at what our attitudes have been and the kind of behaviour they produce. Do they indicate that we have been drawing ever nearer to Jesus, that we have been serving His interests or that we have been serving our interests?  In reflection does our life match the direction that John the Baptist made his aim, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30)?

It is interesting that in his letter James poses this as a question rather than as a statement. “But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?” It may be that the pride in us would rather not know that the lack of godly expression in our attitudes and behaviour reveals the lack of Jesus Christ in our lives.